There is an idea of theater that during the twentieth century in Europe took on the value of an ethical choice even before an artistic one: theater as a place of knowledge, responsibility, and civil debate. Giorgio Strehler was one of its most radical and consistent interpreters, and the insert The art of making theater between intuition and reason, through the introduction of Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini and the contributions of Alberto Bentoglio, Marco Blaser and Claudio Magris, reconstructs with critical rigour the path of a master who made his life absolutely coincide with the theatre.
Theatre is man's active reflection on himself."
Born in Trieste in 1921 and educated in Milan and Central European culture, Strehler discovered his calling during his exile in Switzerland during the war years. It was a foundational experience, both human and political, that indelibly shaped his approach to theater.
As Alberto Bentoglio recalls, Strehler's biography is never separable from his artistic thought: "Strehler's life proceeds in constant dialogue with the stage, to the point of merging with it."
The return to Italy coincides with one of the founding acts of post-war theatrical culture: the birth, in 1947, of the Piccolo Teatro of Milan, the first permanent Italian theatre, founded by Giorgio Strehler e Paolo Grassi with Nina Vinchi, with the aim of creating a theater conceived as a public service: an artistic and cultural institution essential to a collective need, and therefore for the benefit of all citizens. "Art Theater for All" is the motto, as well as the guiding principle of identity, that has accompanied the Piccolo Teatro since its inception and summarizes its mission: to stage high-quality, content-rich performances aimed at the widest possible audience.
In nearly eighty years of activity, the Piccolo Teatro has produced more than 400 shows—many of them directed by Giorgio Strehler—staging works by classical and contemporary authors, through important productions that have become part of the history of world theatre. Limiting ourselves to the direction Strehlerian, we can remember William Shakespeare (Re Lear e The storm), Carlo Goldoni (Harlequin servant of two masters, The Chioggia brawls, The campiello), Anton Chekhov (The cherry garden), Bertolt Brecht (The Threepenny Opera, Life of Galileo, The Good Soul of Szechuan) and Samuel Beckett (Happy days). Therefore, not just an organizational innovation, but the affirmation of an idea: a theatre removed from both worldly ritual and purely commercial logic.
Analyzing the heart of poetics StrehlerianBentoglio again defines it as a high and conscious form of poetic realism. For Strehler, theater must not simply represent reality, but must traverse it, transfigure it, make it legible. In other words, the director is never simply an illustrator of the text: he or she reconstructs its historical context and, at the same time, questions its relevance today. Shakespeare, Goldoni, Brecht, and Pirandello thus become tools for understanding the present, not monuments to be venerated.
This tension between rigor and invention thus becomes the most authentic hallmark of his work. The artistic act arises from a profound knowledge of reality, but is accomplished only through poetic intuition.
Another aspect that certainly deserves to be underlined is the vastness of the culture StrehlerianIn Strehler, prose theater constantly coexists with opera, approached with the same methodological seriousness and ethical tension. In this sense, his role in renewing opera direction is fundamental, imposing the idea of a unified, coherent spectacle, conceived as an autonomous work of art.
I pay with myself. I don't spare myself."
At the same time, he developed a profoundly European vision of culture. Not a bureaucratic or economic Europe, but a community of people and ideas: "Europe is a great spiritual adventure, even before it is a socio-economic one."
Both the experience of the Théâtre de l'Europe and the presidency of the Union des Théâtres de l'Europe fit into this perspective, making Strehler one of the protagonists of the continental cultural scene.
His life, filled with events, meetings, commitments, and prestigious roles, never shied away from political engagement, which he approached as an integral part of his vision of theater. A deeply committed socialist, a member of the European Parliament and later a senator, Strehler always championed the autonomy of art from the forces of the market and power. Giorgio Strehler repeatedly said: "Theatre is a political act because it confronts man with his rights and duties."
Marco Blaser, in his contribution, also insists on this inextricable connection between art and civil life: "For Strehler, every daily gesture was already a statement, every artistic choice had an ethical value."
Alongside the maestro, a complex and at times thorny human portrait emerges. Strehler appears as a demanding, tireless man, capable of overwhelming enthusiasm and sudden harshness. A theater craftsman who demanded from others what he demanded first and foremost from himself. Blaser again effectively conveys this feverish dimension: "He was a restless lion, incapable of half-measures, ready to consume himself in order to achieve the truth of the stage."
Strehler died in 1997, during rehearsals for the Così fan tutte by Mozart. An epilogue that seems to symbolically encapsulate an entire existence spent in work and creation. The art of making theater between intuition and reason It's not just a tribute, but a critical exercise that restores the complexity of a thought that's still relevant today. In an age dominated by standardization and speed, the idea Strehlerian of theatre as a space for collective consciousness appears more necessary today than ever.
*Courtesy of Andrea Romano, Co-Director and Head of Marketing & Public Relations at Banca Popolare di Sondrio (SUISSE).
At the table with… Daniele Finzi Pasca, creativity and imagination at 360 degrees
